adding license and readme

LICENSE

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+MIT License
+
+Copyright (c) 2025 William Dillon
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
+of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
+in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
+to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
+furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
+copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
+LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
+OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
+SOFTWARE.

README.md

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+# settings
+
+A small, concurrency-safe Go package to load simple key/value configuration files and keep them updated automatically.
+
+**Package**: `settings`
+
+**Quick overview**
+- **What it does:** Parses simple text files containing key/value pairs and stores them in a thread-safe in-memory map. It can watch the file (via a background goroutine) and refresh values when the file on disk changes.
+- **File format:** Each non-empty, non-comment line must contain a key and a value separated by a delimiter (`:` or `=`). Lines beginning with `//` or `#` are treated as comments and ignored.
+
+**Key features**
+- **Automatic updates:** A background maintenance goroutine periodically calls `Update()` to reload the file when it changes.
+- **Thread-safe:** All exported methods on `Settings` use mutexes or atomic flags where appropriate.
+- **Simple scanner:** The `scanner` reads lines, supports comments and a small set of delimiters, and returns clear errors for malformed lines.
+
+**Installation**
+
+This package is part of the current module. To run tests or use it, ensure your module is initialized (see `go.mod`) and import it using the module path where it's hosted, e.g.:
+
+```go
+import "your/module/path/settings"
+```
+
+Replace `your/module/path` with your module path.
+
+**Public API**
+- `func NewSettings(filename string, logUpdates bool) *Settings` — create a `Settings` instance using `context.Background()`; starts the background maintenance goroutine.
+- `func NewSettingsWithContext(ctx context.Context, filename string, logUpdates bool) *Settings` — same as above but accepts a `context.Context` to control lifecycle (cancellation stops the maintenance goroutine).
+- `func (s *Settings) GetFilename() string` — returns the current filename.
+- `func (s *Settings) SetFilename(filename string) (updated bool)` — atomically change the filename and attempt an immediate update; returns true if filename changed.
+- `func (s *Settings) SetKeyValue(key, value string) (updated bool)` — set a key/value pair in the in-memory map (returns whether it changed).
+- `func (s *Settings) ContainsKey(key string) bool` — returns whether a key exists.
+- `func (s *Settings) GetKeyValue(key string) string` — returns the value for a key (empty string if not present).
+- `func (s *Settings) Update() error` — force a synchronous update from the current filename; returns an error on IO problems.
+
+Constants / package variables
+- `MaintenanceRoutinePace` (time.Duration) — pacing for the background maintenance goroutine (default `time.Second`).
+- `WarnIfFileNotFound` (bool) — when true, log messages for missing files even if they are `os.ErrNotExist`.
+
+Scanner details
+- `KeyValueDelimiterChars` — allowed delimiter bytes (default `':'` and `'='`).
+- `ErrNoValidDelimiter` — returned when a non-comment non-empty line doesn't contain a valid delimiter.
+- `LineIsComment(line string) bool` — returns true for lines starting with `//` or `#`.
+
+File format example
+
+Valid settings file contents:
+
+```
+// comments allowed
+# another comment
+host: localhost
+port = 8080
+
+mode: production
+```
+
+Notes on behavior
+- When created, `NewSettings*` immediately attempts an initial load. If the file doesn't exist or another IO error occurs, an error is logged but a `Settings` instance is still returned.
+- The background maintenance goroutine invokes `Update()` every `MaintenanceRoutinePace`. Use `NewSettingsWithContext` and pass a cancellable context to stop the goroutine when you no longer need the `Settings` instance.
+- `SetFilename` will attempt to read the new file immediately. If reading fails an error may be logged depending on `WarnIfFileNotFound`.
+- `LogUpdates` is an `atomic.Bool` on the `Settings` struct; set to `true` if you want the package to log add/update operations for keys.
+
+Examples
+
+Create and use `Settings`:
+
+```go
+ctx := context.Background()
+settings := settings.NewSettingsWithContext(ctx, "config.settings", false)
+
+// read a value
+if settings.ContainsKey("host") {
+    host := settings.GetKeyValue("host")
+    fmt.Println("host =", host)
+}
+
+// change the file being used
+settings.SetFilename("other.settings")
+
+// programmatically set a value
+settings.SetKeyValue("local_only", "true")
+
+// force a synchronous reload
+if err := settings.Update(); err != nil {
+    log.Printf("update error: %v", err)
+}
+```
+
+Running tests
+
+From the repository root run:
+
+```bash
+go test ./...
+```
+
+This package includes unit tests for both the `scanner` and the `Settings` behaviors (see `scanner_test.go` and `settings_test.go`).
+
+Contributing / License
+
+This repository has no public license in the source tree. If you plan to reuse or publish this code, add a LICENSE file or consult the repository owner.
+
+Questions
+
+If you want any additional examples, a different README layout, or embedded documentation for each exported symbol, tell me which format you prefer and I will update the file.